Page 55 of Make Her Bleed
He's not happy that I not only slipped past him but also have been spending some time with Aria. He's more territorial over her than Knox is.
I turn in my seat as I drop Aria's hand and see the way Kai is murdering me with his eyes.
"I'm checking in on the patient," I say honestly. "Her vision seems to be improving."
"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" Coach Patrick asks as he squeezes past Kai.
My eyes don't leave Kai. He's not happy with me and I couldn't give a fuck. I don't know exactly what he did to Aria but whatever it is landed her in the hospital and put her through surgery. That tells me it was major.
Kai nods out the door and I slowly stand to my feet.
"See you later, darling." I say before giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
She smirks and nods. "Bye, Rowe."
I turn and walk out with Kai behind me. As soon as the door clicks closed, rage fills me and I push him against the fucking wall, the sheetrock rattling behind him from the force.
"Calm the fuck down, boy." He growls with contempt.
"No, I don't give a shit what you have on me. You may have the others by the balls but I'm not them. If you do anything that puts that girl in the hospital again, I'll snap your neck with my bare hands. I'll happily take the life sentence that goes with it to keep her safe. You got that?" I'm clear in my threat and I know he understands how serious I am.
"Don't you want to know why she's here, what I did to her?"
I quickly release him. I know his ploy. He wants to cause me pain by telling me how he hurt her but I'm not going to give him the satisfaction. Maybe one day I'll ask Aria but I don't want it from Kai.
"No. I'm outta here." I'm about to step out of the door to the stairs when Kai speaks up.
"The pipe, Rowe," he says with malice in his voice.
The pipe.
He only refers to one asthe. It's the same one he always keeps under the bed in Aria’s room, the same one I've been told Aria tried to attack him with when she woke up from the accident.
He likes to brag about what he plans to use that pipe for so he knows I know exactly what he did to her.
Blood boils in my body as I recall the sound of her screams that could be heard through the entire house—blood curdling screams of pain—and the image his admission brings to mind of him holding her down and shoving …
Next thing I know my hand is around his neck and I'm slamming my fist into his jaw again and again.
Who the fuck screwed him up so bad that he would do something like that to her? Aria is a good person. She's never hurt anyone and Kai knows we all care about her. We spent months getting to know her before C-4 was enacted. We knew we couldn't touch her because of Kai's rule but that doesn't mean I guarded my heart from her.
I couldn't, which makes this whole thing much more painful.
"Stop it!" Coach Patrick pulls me back and stops me from continuing to wail on this sick bastard, blood flowing from his nose.
"Let me fucking kill him!" I bellow which gets the attention of the nurses but the good thing about them seeing who we are is that they ignore us and I know they aren't calling security or the police.
They wouldn't do much good anyway.
"Oh, so you're actually serious? You'd be willing to kill me for her? After everything I've done for you, you'll turn your back on me for her.” He's taunting me but it won't work.
"Abso-fuckin-lutely," I admit with pride.
I expect him to threaten me but that's not what I get from him as he wipes the blood from his nose.
"Good. At least someone in this town has some balls. I was starting to think I was the only one." Kai moves to the door leading to the stairs and I pull my arm away from Coach Patrick but he doesn't budge.
"No," he growls as he grabs my arm again. "You need to take a step back, Rowe. The last thing you need is Kai trying to take you down," he warns before slowly releasing my arms. "But, thank you … for defending my daughter. She needs as many people in her corner as she can have to get through this. She's stronger than I gave her credit for but the worst is still yet to come. The final step will probably be what kills her," Coach Patrick warns.
